Sascha Germer and Marcelo Motta

On September 15, 1963, nearly a year after Karl Germer died, Sascha Germer (Karl’s widow) wrote to Germer’s A∴A∴ student, Marcelo Motta, encouraging him to take up the work of Thelema and carry it forward. Motta had written to Sascha shortly after her husband’s death, “I am not prepared. I am not anything. It will be many years yet before I am ready to do anything. I have much work to do on myself yet […]” Motta was, according to his own account a Zelator at the time of Karl’s death, and he would recount nearly a decade later to Jame Wasserman that it was “the moment when I became able to carry on alone, but was not completely prepared.”

Nevertheless, as far a Sascha was concerned, Motta was the closest student to Germer and was to be the one to carry the banner into the future. In the letter below, she wrote to Motta, “You are young, you are the future of the Work, I did not believe when Karl said: It will take another 10 years to make Motta the heir! But spiritually you are his Heir! You have to work on in Brazil […] You fight [for] the Work! Fight with Ra-Hoor-Khuit!”

In fact, Motta’s relationship to Germer and his intentions with Thelema lied solely in the work of the A∴A∴. Yet, Motta was never actually granted any charter in the O.T.O. (although Germer had mentioned it to him over the years of their correspondence).

Motta would later indeed carry on the work of the A∴A∴ and announce its resurfacing in 1975 in his publication of The Commentaries of AL. However, it would be Grady McMurtry who would hold a greater claim to the O.T.O. It was that fateful summer of 1976, these two giants would clash for successorship in the Thelemic movement, events which continue to influence the movement today.